Egyptian military kill Christians

In Egypt, at least two dozen people died on Sunday when the Egyptian military attacked a large gathering of Coptic Christian protesters. The violence broke out after a protest in Cairo against an attack on a church in Aswan province last week.

Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous was in Cairo and witnessed the killings. “Then the military attacked. They came rushing forward, beating anyone in their path. Then they started opening fire. The sound of gunfire filled the air,” said Kouddous. “It was really a scene of chaos, a scene of bloodshed, the likes of which I have not seen since the revolution here in Cairo. And the reaction of the army does not bode well for the future.” [includes rush transcript]

This video is from Egypt, and shows an officer firing at unarmed protesters.

This video is about pro-democracy protests yesterday in Morocco.

Nonviolent mass action is not the poor relative of an armed uprising but can often be more effective in achieving and sustaining change. Had the popular rebellions in Tunisia and Egypt been commandeered by men and women of the gun, they would probably have invited instant and overwhelming counterviolence by the respective regimes, which would have gladly seized the opportunity to crush the incipient protests: here.